What is "dramaturgy"

Dramaturgy \Dram"a*tur`gy\, n. [Gr. ? dramatic composition; ? drama + a root akin to E. work: cf. F. dramaturgie.] The art of dramatic composition and representation.

"composition and production of plays," 1801, from French dramaturgie, from Greek dramatourgia, from drama (genitive dramatos) + ergos "worker" (see organ).

n. (context theater English) The art of dramatic composition for the stage.

n. the art of writing and producing plays [syn: dramatic art, dramatics, theater, theatre]

Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The word dramaturgy was coined by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in his influential work Hamburg Dramaturgy, written when he was employed by the Hamburg National Theatre as the world's first dramaturge. Dramaturgy is a distinct practice separate from play writing and directing, although a single individual may perform any combination of the three. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturge, to adapt a work for the stage.

Dramaturgy may also be defined, more broadly, as shaping a story into a form that may be acted. Dramaturgy gives the work or the performance a structure, an understructure as well as a reference to Zeitgeist. Dramaturgy is a tool to scrutinize narrative strategies, cross-cultural signs and references, theater and film historic sources, genre, ideological approach, representing of gender roles etc. of a narrative-performative work.

Dramaturgy is a practice-based as well as practice-led discipline invented by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (the author of well known plays such as Miss Sara Sampson, Emilia Galotti, Minna von Barnhelm, and Nathan the Wise) in the 18th century. The Theater of Hamburg engaged him for some years for a position today known as ‘dramaturge’. He was first of this kind and described his task as ‘dramatic judge’ (“dramatischer Richter”) who has to be able to tell the difference between the stake the play has or the main actor or the director to make us feel comfortable or not while watching a theatrical performance. From 1767-1770 Lessing wrote and published as result a series of criticisms entitled the Hamburg Dramaturgy (Hamburgische Dramaturgie). These works analyzed, criticized and theorized the German theatre, and made Lessing the father of modern Dramaturgy.

Based on Lessing's “Hamburgische Dramaturgie” (Lessing and Berghahn, 1981) and “Laokoon” and Hegel’s “Aesthetics” (written 1835-1838), many authors, including Hölderlin, Goethe, Schelling, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams, started to reflect on theater, not only in Germany.,

Gustav Freytag summed up those reflections in his book “The Technique of the Drama”, which has been translated into English and published in the late 19th century in the USA. Freytag's book is seen as the blueprint for the first Hollywood screenwriting manuals. The Technique of Play Writing by Charlton Andrews, 1915, refers to European and German traditions of dramaturgy and understanding dramatic composition.

Another important work in the Western theatrical tradition is Poetics by Aristotle (written around 335 BC). In this work Aristotle analyzes tragedy. Aristotle considers Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BC) as the quintessential dramatic work. He analyzes the relations among character, action, and speech, gives examples of good plots, and examines the reactions the plays provoke in the audience. Many of his "rules" are referred to today as "Aristotelian drama". In Poetics, Aristotle discusses many key concepts of drama, such as anagnorisis and catharsis.

Poetics is the earliest surviving Western work of dramatic theory. The earliest non-Western dramaturgic work is probably the Indian Sanskrit "Natayasatra" ('The Art of Theatre') written about AD 100, which describes the elements, forms and narrative elements of the ten major types of ancient Indian dramas.

Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective starting from symbolic interactionism and commonly used in microsociological accounts of social interaction in everyday life. The term was first adapted into sociology from the theatre by Erving Goffman, who developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Kenneth Burke, whom Goffman would later acknowledge as an influence, had earlier presented his notions of dramatism in 1945, which in turn derives from Shakespeare. However, the fundamental difference between Burke's and Goffman's view is that Burke believed that life was in fact theatre, whereas Goffman viewed theatre as a metaphor. If we imagine ourselves as directors observing what goes on in the theatre of everyday life, we are doing what Goffman called dramaturgical analysis, the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance.

In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that the elements of human interactions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented. Goffman forms a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and beliefs. Performances can have disruptions (actors are aware of such), but most are successful. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted performance. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.

A dramaturgical action is a social action that is designed to be seen by others and to improve one's public self-image. In addition to Erving Goffman, this concept has been used by Jürgen Habermas and Harold Garfinkel, among others.